Temperature control beverage holders have been around for a substantial period of time. Initially, the insulative element was part of the beverage container. Perhaps as pop or soda can changed from steel to aluminum and became thinner walled insulators, sometimes referred to as “can coolies” entered the market. These insulators, generally formed of foam, are removable joined about the lower portion of a pop can. Such foam has a minor amount of adjustability in diameter. Quite rapidly, however, the beverage container can be so small that it will not engage the insulator or too large that it will not fit into the insulator. For this reason, the insulators are generally only made for canned beverages, which tend to come in a standard sized diameter. Moreover, the insulators tend not to be absorbent, absorbing the sweat that a cold beverage may collect on a sultry day.
Holders have been developed for odd shaped containers, e.g. coffee cups. These too have too rigid of a supporting structure to provide substantial adjustability in size or shape of the container. For instance, Houck disclosed an invention in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,984 entitled Thermal Holders for Cups for Use in Vehicles. This box shaped design has slits for receiving the ear of a coffee cup and includes an absorbent pad on the bottom of the box. The invention is not suitable unless one has the proper sized beverage container and a place to set the box.
Other non-adjustable beverage holders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,147 entitled Container with Absorbent Material issued to Brander et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,549 entitled Three in One Car Cup and Holder issued to Sadler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,946 entitled Coaster with Removable Support Plate issued to Jenison; U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,953 entitled Beverage Cup Holder issued to Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,637 entitled Adapter for Cup Holders issued to Osborn; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,153 entitled Adapter for Cup Holders also issued to Osborn. Insulation and absorbency may be included in some of these inventions.
Use of absorbent materials has been found in patents other than Houck including Shaffer et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,823 entitled Coaster and Wipe; Miller (U.S. Pat. No. 4,82,507 entitled Absorbent Pad; and Honjo (U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,162) entitled Coaster. Absorbency can be as a result of spillage or sweating of the container, although these inventions do not include an absorbency feature for wiping the sweat off a container. Rather the sweat must drip down the side of the container to the pad which is located underneath the container.
So common are beverage holders that most vehicles come with such holders as a standard feature. These holders are generally rigid and often do not fit containers of desired beverages well. The holders are often oversized to some degree to allow more containers to fit within, but this has a limit as the containers, not well secured, lack insulation and tend to tip over while in route.
What is needed is an adjustable beverage holder that is sufficiently adjustable in size to fit beverage containers of most all sizes. The holder should fit within a beverage holder of a vehicle console. The holder should be removable, staying with the beverage until consumed and should provide insulative value to the container. Moreover, the holder should have and absorbency feature, desirably wiping the sides of the container, avoiding the need for the sweat to reach the bottom of the container.